I think I may have mentioned before that I am an electrical engineer at a very large electronics company. In fact, the company that I work for has provided integrated circuits to the cochlear implant industry in the past, and we have a lot of internal expertise in digital signal processing. So, I am always excited to hear about the “geek part” of cochlear implants. I love trips to the audi because I get a chance to see the latest stuff.
Now I am sure that most of you caught the January issue of Components in Electronics (I am sure you all have lifetime subscriptions). For the few of you that missed that riveting volume, there is a cool article about cochlear implant development in there. The piece discusses some work that is going on at Cochlear to interface between patients implants and “test stuff.” In the past, researchers have used a MATLAB-based program to stimulate implants and gotten feedback from the patients directly. Recently, they have evolved this approach and have developed some cool real-time systems for “trying new stuff out.”
As an engineer, it is obvious to me how critical this kind of work is. This is where the better implants and better coding strategies come from. The guys a Chochlear put it best:
“Without a good research platform, it’s impossible to test new approaches efficiently,” conclude Goorevich and Swanson. “Using the platforms that we have developed—and continue to develop—we have the opportunity to rapidly try new ideas, features, and algorithms that will help people hear better.”
You can check out the full article here.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen and all the ships at sea… I was able to somewhat successfully get converted from my old blogging software to WordPress tonight. WordPress is certainly not perfect, but there are tons of users and developers working on it, and I needed to standardize on one platform across several sites.
One problem that I ran into is that there was not a good way to export the comments from my old blog software. So, I will be re-entering some of them by hand over the weekend. If you had a favorite comment that you were sad to lose, please feel free to enter it again.
If you have comments about the site (especially stuff you find to be missing or broken), please let me know. I’ve decided to put off the server move for now until I get things the way I want them here.
You’ll probably also notice that the top graphic has changed. I am curious to hear what you think about it.
Good luck with this! Wordpress is rather a pain sometimes 
I’ve been busy the last couple of days planning for a server move (yuck) and a change in software. For those computer geeks among you, I can tell you that CochlearWorld.com currently runs on a shared server with a bunch of other stuff. I am moving the other stuff, so CochlearWorld has to move as well. Our new home will be on a brand new shiny virtual private server with lots of room to grow! The address won’t change (http://www.cochlearworld.com), and if I do it correctly, you won’t even notice. 
While I am doing that, I will also be changing blogging software. You will notice that, as the look and feel of the site will change (hopefully for the better).
So, stay tuned. Once all this backend work is complete, I plan to get back to the focus of building a great resource for people interested in cochlear implants.
When trying to choose a cochlear implant for my baby daughter, I spoke to someone at Cochlear and asked about fully implantable implants. There are actually several adults in Australia who already have them on a trial basis. The biggest problem they have been having–and it is big!–is that they can hear their own body sounds, which aside from probably being very disturbing means that they can’t hear everything else as well as they can with an external processor. (They also have an external bit they can wear, and hear perfectly fine if that is on.) Also thus far the batteries would need to be changed too often, every five years I believe, which is a lot of surgery. The woman told me that it won’t be available on the market until it is perfected, but they are working on it!
Alley, wish I could take a visual or emtional sensation and put it into words like that. Keep working to develop this gift and one day I’ll be at the book store buying the books you have authored!
Uncle David
Alley,
You know what it’s like to not hear anything anyone says. To have a wonderful blue world with no one to bother you. Thanks for sharing your story with everyone so they can get to know you a little bit better.
Thank You.
You bet! Very interested. Thanks! Mark
Hi there, would you be interested in a story from a Baha recipient? I am one of the volunteers for Cochlear Awareness Network and would love you to publish my story on your site. Any chance of that happening? Felicity gave us all your details to pass on to others. Best wishes from Wendy Jansz
Alley…..your writings are totally awesome! You speak with your heart and your words touch my heart. You will help so many others by sharing your thoughts and experiences. I am so proud of you and love you so much.
Lots of love,
MeMaw
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